Indian F4 begins its third season this August at Kari Motor Speedway, where a collection of international single-seater rookies and experienced drivers will begin five rounds of competition in hopes of making the next step in their careers. Feeder Series tells you all you need to know about the 2025 season.

By Grayson Wallace

Indian F4 was co-founded in 2021 by sports car racer Aditya Patel, former FIA Formula Two driver Armaan Ebrahim, and Racing Promotions Private Limited (RPPL) directors Akhilesh Reddy and Navjeet Gadhoke. It is India’s only FIA-sanctioned single-seater series. The RPPL-run championship’s 2022 season never got underway, but it has run in the late summer and autumn every year since.

Last season, Aqil Alibhai dominated and took the championship title with six wins out of the fifteen races, including five in the final seven. Former F3 driver Hugh Barter also raced in the first five races and won three.

Having worked with MP Motorsport for its first two seasons in 2023 and 2024, the series will run all of its own cars this year with an in-house team. The 1.3-litre turbocharged Alpine engine prepared by Oreca is the same as last year’s, and the Ligier JS F422 will be the spec chassis used in the series.

The calendar 

Indian F4 will race alongside its parent series, the Indian Racing League (IRL), at each round. 

The venues for two final rounds are yet to be confirmed, as was the case on the eve of the 2024 season. The Madras International Circuit, which hosted all rounds of the 2023 season, will be back for the third year running.

• Round 1: Kari Motor Speedway (16–17 August)
• Round 2: Madras International Circuit (23–24 August)
• Round 3: Kari Motor Speedway (4–5 October)
• Round 4: TBC (1–2 November)
• Round 5: TBC (29–30 November) 

The format 

Unofficial collective testing will take place on Friday; official sessions are held Saturday and Sunday. Thirty minutes of official testing will run on Saturday, followed by a 20-minute qualifying session. The first race will be 25 minutes plus one lap in length. 

The second and third races on Sunday will also run for 25 minutes plus one lap. Following the standard FIA points system, 25 points will be awarded to the winner, 18 for second and 15 for third, down to one for 10th place. The series will also award two bonus points for setting pole position and one for the fastest lap during each race.

Where to watch 

Limited live coverage is available on national TV in India on Star Sports 2 and JioHotstar. Motorsport Television Deutschland will also live-stream races with German commentary on their Facebook page, though this option will only be available in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Race highlights can be found on Indian F4’s YouTube channel. Live timing can also be sourced via Speedhive.

Teams and drivers

Indian F4 and the IRL are distinct in that they have regional teams and racing franchises to distinguish between the spec cars in the championship. The structure is similar to what existed in the former W Series in 2021 and 2022, when the centrally run all-female championship divided competitors into nine teams, many of which were backed by companies or celebrities.

The series will also house two drivers from the Formula Global Shootout Program (FGSP), which ran in June with 11 drivers participating across the three days. The programme’s winner received a fully paid-for Indian F4 seat for this season. 

Kichcha’s Kings Bengaluru

Indian actor and film director Kichcha Sudeepa acquired the former Bengaluru Speedsters team this year and renamed it Kichcha’s Kings Bengaluru, an identity that makes its debut in the series this weekend. 

As the winner of the FGSP, French racer Sachel Rotgé was the first driver to be announced for the 2025 season, having received a paid-for Indian F4 seat. The 19-year-old raced in the ROK Cup Italia from 2021 to 2024. He also placed seventh in the Feed Racing shootout in August 2024.

Austrian Clara Stiebleichinger, who has completed multiple tests with Feed Racing in 2024 and 2025, will fill the second seat in the new team. She is one of three female drivers in the championship. She also has a history in ski racing in her home country of Austria.

Chennai Turbo Riders

The Chennai team enter their third year in the series having fielded rookie champion Isaac Demellweek of Australia last season. The team also housed 2023 title winner Cooper Webster. 

Placing fourth as the top female driver in the ROK Cup Singapore’s 2024 championship, Kareen Kaur enters Indian F4 with the Chennai Turbo Riders for her single-seater debut. The 15-year-old began her racing journey in her native Singapore, and she has raced in the ROK Cup Asia as well as in the Champions of the Future (COTF) Academy Program.

Having faced Rotgé in the FGSP, Shane Chandaria will also be joining the grid. The 15-year-old, like most in the series, will be making his single-seater debut. In 2021, he took rookie of the year honours in the Kenya National Karting Championship, and he won the cadet class the year after. He is now 23rd in the Junior Rotax category of the British Kart Championship, having finished 37th the year prior in the same class.

Hyderabad Blackbirds

The Hyderabad Blackbirds ran 2024 champion Alibhai, and at least one of the team’s drivers has placed in the top five each year since the championship began in 2023. The outfit was initially launched in 2021 by Indian F4’s promoter, Akhilesh Reddy, but was taken over by actor Naga Chaitanya in 2023.

Previous FIA Karting Academy Trophy racer Vasilis Apostolidis will be joining the team for his first season in single-seaters after finishing as the championship runner-up of the WSK Open Series’ OK-N class in 2024. The 16-year-old Greek driver previously finished eighth in the FIA Karting Academy Trophy in 2023.

Currently 16th in the 2025 FIA Karting Academy Trophy’s senior class, 16-year-old Annabel Kennedy is set to achieve her goal of racing in F4 this year after having tested in her native Australia earlier this year. Last year, she finished 18th out of 126 other competitors in the Australian Kart Championship’s KA3 Junior class.

Kolkata Royal Tigers

The Kolkata Royal Tigers were taken over by former Indian national cricket captain Sourav Ganguly last year. Whilst captain, Ganguly brought the India men’s national cricket team to the final of the 2003 Cricket World Cup and led them to the 2002 International Cricket Council Champions Trophy. The F4 team, an outgrowth of the Godspeed Kochi entity, raced as the Rarh Bengal Tigers last year in recognition of the historical eastern Indian region but has returned to the name of the West Bengal capital for 2025.

Sixteen-year-old Ghazi Motlekar was the first racer announced to be driving for the team. The Mozambique-licenced racer was the winner of the 2020 Rotax Max Challenge South Africa’s Mini class. Having debuted in European karting in 2021, he drove last year in ROK Senior Cup Italy and Champions of the Future Academy’s OK-N senior. He additionally competed in the 2024 FIA Motorsport Games, finishing 12th in the Sprint Senior class.

Coming in as the champion of the 2025 Meritus Cup in the Senior Max category, 16-year-old Ishaan Madesh steps up to F4 having already done one round of MRF F2000 with one win. He also competed in the FIA Motorsport Games alongside Kolkata Royal Tigers teammate Motlekar, moving up seven places and finishing 18th. 

Goa Aces JA Racing

Led by Indian actor and film producer John Abraham, Goa Aces JA Racing were the 2024 winners of the Indian Racing League. This will be their second year with Abraham’s ownership but third in Indian F4.

Born in Rwanda but racing with a South African licence, 15-year-old Enzo Rujugiro enters his first single-seater championship. He drove in the OKJ category in both the FIA Karting World Championship and COTF Euro Series in 2024. 

South Africa’s Luviwe Sambudla, the Mini class champion of the 2021 ROK Cup South Africa, will also drive for the team. He finished eighth in the OK class of the WSK Super Master Series in 2023. The 16-year-old and his teammate are already familiar with one another, both being part of Ican Management as well as long-time friends. 

Speed Demons Delhi

In 2024, the Speed Demons Delhi team was taken over by Bollywood actor Arjun Kapoor via a multi-year agreement. Current F1 Academy driver Alba Larsen raced for the team for two rounds last year. They now enter their third season in Indian F4.

Sixteen-year-old Ntiyiso Mabunda makes his way into his first single-seater championship. The South African raced in the Ginetta Junior championship with his older brother, Mahlori Mabunda, earlier this year for one round. He also entered three rounds of the 2024 season. He competed in ROK Cup South Africa’s OKJ class in 2022 for a ticket to race in the FIA Karting Academy Trophy the following year. He finished that campaign 36th.

Saishiva Sankaran makes his return to Indian F4 and Speed Demons Delhi after taking a 12th-place finish overall last year and becoming the championship’s youngest polesitter at 16 in just his second round in the series. Now 17, Pune native Sankaran secured three podiums in the MRF F1600 series this year.

Godspeed Kochi

Since debuting with the series in 2023, Godspeed Kochi has had at least one driver finish in the top five overall in the drivers’ championship standings. They also hosted ex-F3 driver Hugh Barter last year. 

Fifteen-year-old South African Wian Boshoff won the ROK Cup South Africa’s OKJ title in 2023. He finished 17th in the 2025 season of USF2000, his first in open-wheel machinery, and took sixth place in the 2024 FIA Karting Academy Trophy standings.

Header photo credit: Racing Promotions Private Limited